The director of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office was recently appointed by the prime minister to serve as a stenographer for sensitive cabinet meetings and war-related consultations, according to a report on Sunday.
The report from Channel 12 came after senior security figures were said last month to have discovered discrepancies between meeting transcripts and real-time events.
The bureau director-turned-stenographer, referred to by Channel 12 only by the Hebrew initial “Nun,” began attending the meetings several weeks ago to transcribe the minutes of the sensitive discussions.
When her presence was noted by attendees, Channel 12 said sources close to the prime minister claimed that a stenographer had recently stepped down for personal reasons, and the workload was too much for one person to do the job alone.
The sources said that Nun had wanted to leave her position as bureau director and held the necessary security clearance for the role.
News of Nun’s appointment followed allegations in Hebrew media last month that Netanyahu had been attempting to keep his conversations regarding the management of the Gaza war untraceable.
According to the reports, senior figures in the security establishment were concerned that efforts were being made to edit the minutes of wartime discussions held with Netanyahu after discovering discrepancies between transcripts of the meetings and what the figures present had heard in real-time.
The Ynet news site alleged at the time that one of the meetings whose records were tampered with dealt with “sensitive preparations for a significant political event,” but it did not elaborate further.
Netanyahu’s office denied the accusations at the time, calling them a “complete lie.”
In response to the report regarding Nun’s new position, the Prime Minister’s Office said that “position transfers within the office are an acceptable thing.”
“The employee transferred to the position of stenographer after requesting to leave her previous position,” the PMO added. “In addition, due to the war, there was a need for another stenographer.”
The statement rejected what it said were attempts to “slander the Prime Minister’s Office, or an excellent employee, or to present her transition between roles as improper.”
Appearing to refer to previous accusations that Netanyahu had attempted to alter the minutes of sensitive meetings, the PMO said that the claim was “a complete and utter lie.”
“Those who are familiar with the work process know that the discussions are recorded and transcribed and it is impossible to tamper with them.”
Senior political sources told Ynet last month, however, that they could not be sure that recent meetings were being recorded in line with requirements after they transitioned from being held at the IDF headquarters earlier in the war to Netanyahu’s Tel Aviv and Jerusalem offices.
The controversy surrounding the cabinet meeting minutes was not the first time Netanyahu and his government were accused of attempting to tamper with or conceal information.
In July, the Kan public broadcaster reported that Netanyahu was holding sensitive discussions on the war via phone calls on the WhatsApp app, which does not allow conversations to be recorded.
Weeks after the Hamas-led October 7 terror onslaught, the Haaretz daily reported that Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman — who previously admitted to shredding documents at the Prime Minister’s Office — seized classified documents concerning the months leading up to the war, leading Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to order National Security Council chief Tzachi Hanegbi to return the documents.
The premier has also declined to initiate a state commission of inquiry into Israel’s failures leading up to October 7, arguing that doing so would harm the war effort and should only commence after the fighting ends. He also refuses to explicitly commit to a state commission as opposed to a less powerful inquiry body.